Autistic People Talk about Themselves: A Qualitative Analysis of Internet Discussion Forums

Background:

Individuals with Autism are defined in Medical and Psychological scientific publications and in the Media as having primary deficits in socialization, communication and language, as well as manifestation of repetitive activities and narrow interests (Frith, 2008). The growing awareness to the study of populations with physical or mental impairments within the framework of the social model of disability encourage scientists to look closer into the details of variability without a rigid a priori classification into pathological groups (Brownlow, 2010; Shakespeare, 2006). The present study was designed within the neural diversity theoretical framework in order to look at how individuals with autism view and discuss issues that are related to language and communication. 

Objectives:  

To explore the way autistic people present in internet discussion forums their own views on daily experiences, perceptions and difficulties in social interactions.

Methods:  

Following: 1) gaining an approval from the group of autistic participants in an internet discussion group, and 2) getting an ethical permission from Tel Aviv University to run this study, the second author (MP) entered  the internet forum on a regular basis throughout a period of 10 months. She documented the internet conversations and then performed a qualitative text analysis on a very large corpus of computer entries. The conversational rich data underwent text analysis utilizing computer software (ATLAS.TI) that supported the identification of topics, the selection of similar entries by topic, and also helped in the overall organization of the data into major themes. It is important to note that all the categories that were identified emerged from the text itself in a process that is known as grounded theory method. That is, the themes that were discovered appeared in the discussions and were not superimposed on it.

Results:  

Four main themes emerged from the data regarding communication in the eyes of autistic individuals.  The first theme was the Physical and Emotional Existence: here we found a lot of discussion on how our participants viewed their own identity in a social environment that is mainly consisted of neurotypical (NT) individuals. Two main areas were mainly raised: a) the sensory processing of physical stimuli, and b) the social challenges and the attitudes of NT towards them. The second theme was Interaction with other individuals. The third theme was related to Autistic Language. Our participants highlighted the difference between their own unique language and the conventional language spoken around them. The forth theme was Autistic Communication. This is the overriding theme that demonstrated the unique style of communication of autistic people. It shows that autistic communication is different and not necessarily inadequate or impaired.

Conclusions:  

The social model of disability and the availability of internet discussion forums open up new fascinating ways for a better understanding of the experiences, perceptions and internal mental states of people with autism.